When Branch Rickey confided that he would soon sign an unspecified black player, Barber had considered resigning rather than officiate over the breakdown in Jim Crow. Barber’s wife, the wise Miss Lylah, told him to have a martini and sleep on it, and in the morning he recalled a passage in the Bible that persuaded him to treat Robinson as a great competitor rather than a sociological or historical phenomenon.

“I know that if I have achieved any understanding and tolerance in my life,” Barber wrote years later, “I thank Jackie Robinson. He did far more for me than I did for him.”

kba

01-14-2008, 09:06 AM

George Vecsey of the NY Times looks back at the great radio baseball announcers and most were from the south

Interesting theory, although I'm not sure that the south has contributed more great baseball announcers than any other region has. I can think of quite a few greats from that era (Scully, Caray, Brickhouse, Jack Buck) who were from other places. Maybe he means that many of the great NEW YORK announcers were from the south.

The Yankees fired Barber in 1966 after he asked the cameras to pan the sparse crowd in Yankee Stadium and he started counting the number of fans. The attendance that day (for a September game between the White Sox and the last-place Yankees) was 413.

Fenway

01-14-2008, 09:17 AM

Interesting theory, although I'm not sure that the south has contributed more great baseball announcers than any other region has. I can think of quite a few greats from that era (Scully, Caray, Brickhouse, Jack Buck) who were from other places. Maybe he means that many of the great NEW YORK announcers were from the south.

.

He forgot to include one of the Yankees great announcers who grew up in Georgia